More How clever is the scheduler?

I just dropped Dish Network -- the cost, you know -- for DTV. I'm
looking at the Tivo HD DVRs, but wondered about the scheduling.

With the Dish Network DVR, when there was a timing conflict between
programs, the DVR would look for alternate broadcasts, then schedule
accordingly. Will Tivo do this? Probably less an issue for DTV
broadcasts -- fewer repeats than cable/sat networks, but just curious.

BlownFuse wrote:
I just dropped Dish Network -- the cost, you know -- for DTV. I'm
looking at the Tivo HD DVRs, but wondered about the scheduling.

With the Dish Network DVR, when there was a timing conflict between
programs, the DVR would look for alternate broadcasts, then schedule
accordingly. Will Tivo do this? Probably less an issue for DTV
broadcasts -- fewer repeats than cable/sat networks, but just curious.

TiVo has a season pass manager where you specify recording priorities.
If a program doesn't get recorded due to conflicts (2 other programs
already recording) then any other showing of the skipped program become
viable targets for recording (eg an "encore" presentation).

So, if you have programs A,B,C all configured for recording in that
priority, and they all show at 10pm on Friday then program C will not
be recorded. But if there's another showing of that program at midnight
then it will schedule that one instead.

However, as I understand it, if program C is not repeated but program A
is then the Tivo will _not_ change recording priorities to match this.

--
Stephen Harris

The truth is the truth, and opinion just opinion. But what is what?
My employer pays to ignore my opinions; you get to do it for free.

So, if you have programs A,B,C all configured for recording in that
priority, and they all show at 10pm on Friday then program C will not
be recorded. But if there's another showing of that program at midnight

Or, perhaps, 3am next Wednesday

then it will schedule that one instead.

It will also schedule an episode of program C later, if there are no
conflicts, beyond the current guide data that it has.

However, as I understand it, if program C is not repeated but program A
is then the Tivo will _not_ change recording priorities to match this.

I'm of mixed feelings as to whether a Tivo ought to put off scheduling
a higher-priority program because it's available later in favor of
a lower-priority program that's not available later. How do you
control such a feature so it does what you want?

Yes, sometimes it might work great. But there's a reason why it
was higher-priority, and perhaps it's because I wanted to watch it
the same evening it was on.

Then again, sometimes it does NOT work great. The later scheduling
of program A may vanish. At times I have observed that if a program
changes time slot, the new one appears before the old one goes away,
especially if it got moved earlier. That may not happen that way
all the time, but it has a few times I've noticed.

And, of course, sometimes planned recordings get ruined because the
schedule wasn't kept. This tends to happen to recordings just after
football games and Presidential news conferences a lot (manual
tweaking of extending the recording can help here, but it may
generate conflicts of its own). If there *is* another showing of
program A, I'd at least like a chance to see the problem and manually
schedule the repeated showing.

Incidentally, if I decide I *want* Program C recorded now, I can
cancel one recording from the Season Pass for Program A. The
scheduler will put Program C in that slot.

It also complicates calculating the scheduling a lot. The arrival
of new guide data that changes the schedule for shows, say, 10-14
days from now does not currently re-arrange the schedule for TODAY.
(Granted, you might get some last-minute changes for today in that
batch, but it doesn't happen that often) With the proposed scheme,
it might. If you ever use the To Do List to see what you might
want to watch this evening, you might find that it lied.

On Sun, 24 Aug 2008 20:45:32 -0500, BlownFuse wrote:

I just dropped Dish Network -- the cost, you know -- for DTV. I'm
looking at the Tivo HD DVRs, but wondered about the scheduling.

With the Dish Network DVR, when there was a timing conflict between
programs, the DVR would look for alternate broadcasts, then schedule
accordingly. Will Tivo do this? Probably less an issue for DTV
broadcasts -- fewer repeats than cable/sat networks, but just curious.

If you're concerned with cost, you might want to consider a PC DVR for OTA
DTV. It's a lot cheaper, and a lot more versatile. And it will
automatically resolve conflicts. Or you could just use 3 or 4 tuners and
not worry about conflicts. See links below for comparisons.

--
Want the ultimate in free OTA SD/HDTV Recorder? http://mythtv.org
My Tivo Experience http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/tivo.htm
Tivo HD/S3 compared http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/mythtivo.htm
AMD cpu help http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/cpu.php

BlownFuse wrote:
I just dropped Dish Network -- the cost, you know -- for DTV. I'm
looking at the Tivo HD DVRs, but wondered about the scheduling.

Actually, what do you mean by "DTV"? If you mean "DirecTV" then the TiVoHD
won't work with it. If you mean terrestial OTA Digital TV then it'll work
fine.

--
Stephen Harris

The truth is the truth, and opinion just opinion. But what is what?
My employer pays to ignore my opinions; you get to do it for free.

"BlownFuse" wrote in message
news:[email protected]
I just dropped Dish Network -- the cost, you know -- for DTV. I'm looking
at the Tivo HD DVRs, but wondered about the scheduling.

You will spend more on the Tivo HD then you will on the Dishnetwork box. I
was spending 5.00 a month to rent it a few years ago. What do they charge
now ? Your going to have to rent the cable access card from the cable
company. Then pay Tivo the monthly fee, and buy the tivo unit.

I pay 2.00 ea for the two single stream cards each month.

With the Dish Network DVR, when there was a timing conflict between
programs, the DVR would look for alternate broadcasts, then schedule
accordingly. Will Tivo do this? Probably less an issue for DTV
broadcasts -- fewer repeats than cable/sat networks, but just curious.

On 2008-08-25 05:44:23 -0500, (Stephen Harris) said:

BlownFuse wrote:
I just dropped Dish Network -- the cost, you know -- for DTV. I'm
looking at the Tivo HD DVRs, but wondered about the scheduling.

Actually, what do you mean by "DTV"? If you mean "DirecTV" then the TiVoHD
won't work with it. If you mean terrestial OTA Digital TV then it'll work
fine.

The latter. OTA Digital.

On 2008-08-25 14:55:00 -0500, "Kevin Weaver"
said:


"BlownFuse" wrote in message
news:[email protected]
I just dropped Dish Network -- the cost, you know -- for DTV. I'm
looking at the Tivo HD DVRs, but wondered about the scheduling.

You will spend more on the Tivo HD then you will on the Dishnetwork
box. I was spending 5.00 a month to rent it a few years ago. What do
they charge now ? Your going to have to rent the cable access card from
the cable company. Then pay Tivo the monthly fee, and buy the tivo unit.

I pay 2.00 ea for the two single stream cards each month.

With the Dish Network DVR, when there was a timing conflict between
programs, the DVR would look for alternate broadcasts, then schedule
accordingly. Will Tivo do this? Probably less an issue for DTV
broadcasts -- fewer repeats than cable/sat networks, but just curious.

You don't pay anything for programming? That's the 'spensive part.

"BlownFuse" wrote in message
news:[email protected]
On 2008-08-25 14:55:00 -0500, "Kevin Weaver"
said:


"BlownFuse" wrote in message
news:[email protected]
I just dropped Dish Network -- the cost, you know -- for DTV. I'm
looking at the Tivo HD DVRs, but wondered about the scheduling.

You will spend more on the Tivo HD then you will on the Dishnetwork box.
I was spending 5.00 a month to rent it a few years ago. What do they
charge now ? Your going to have to rent the cable access card from the
cable company. Then pay Tivo the monthly fee, and buy the tivo unit.

I pay 2.00 ea for the two single stream cards each month.

With the Dish Network DVR, when there was a timing conflict between
programs, the DVR would look for alternate broadcasts, then schedule
accordingly. Will Tivo do this? Probably less an issue for DTV
broadcasts -- fewer repeats than cable/sat networks, but just curious.

You don't pay anything for programming? That's the 'spensive part.

You have to factor in the whole cost. Programming cost was within a few
bucks of each other for the basic things. Then there was the cost of local
channels. (5.00) extra for the locals. I was paying 5 or 6 bucks for the
dish DVR which did two rooms. The Cable cards alone are about that of the
DVR Rental cost of the dishnetwork box. But then you have to add the Tivo
sub price and the cost of the Tivo unit.

And if anything goes wrong with the Tivo your out of pocket on that, where
the Dish DVR is replaced on them.

BlownFuse wrote:
On 2008-08-25 05:44:23 -0500, (Stephen Harris) said:
Actually, what do you mean by "DTV"? If you mean "DirecTV" then the TiVoHD
won't work with it. If you mean terrestial OTA Digital TV then it'll work
fine.

The latter. OTA Digital.

Heh. I always considered a TiVo for OTA to be overkill. Maybe that's
because only 40% of the shows I watch are available OTA. But then a
refurb TiVoHD (direct from TiVo) is available for $180 and that's pretty
good value. Not sure I'd pay $300, but $180 is much more sane for OTA
recordings.

https://www3.tivo.com/store/webspeci...als_hdr efurb


--
Stephen Harris

The truth is the truth, and opinion just opinion. But what is what?
My employer pays to ignore my opinions; you get to do it for free.